Guitar Hero: World Tour

11072008

Also known as Guitar Hero IV, Guitar Hero: World Tour is the forth addition to the Guitar Hero series. It is developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision and is set for release on October 27, 2008. The game is expected to be released for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PS2. The game will have vocals, bass, drums, and lead, pretty much like Rock Band. The game will allow you to create your own songs using drums, and all guitars, but you cannot add in vocals due to certain limitations and copyrights.

Song creation

Players can also upload there own songs and share them amoung others. They have also reworked the gameplay. In Career Mode, instead of playing through a setlist, you encounter gigs, which offer you choices of songs to play, however, you do not have to complete every song to continue on in your Career. The have added a new difficuly level called “Beginner” as well as the regular difficulties (Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert). The new Career will allow players to drop difficulty levels and be able to switch instruments without restarting the Career. The five total instruments for the game are: lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, vocals, and online/offline full band. GH 4 will feature a Band Career mode, something very close as the

Create-a-Guitar

mode on Rock Band. A full four-player band will be able to compete will other bands online in the Battle of the Bands mode. The bass guitarist have been give new mechanics, such as simulating the open E string on real bass guitars during play, indicated by a sixth note in the bass’ note track and played by struming without pressing any fret button. The drums can activate Star Power by hitting both cymbal pads at the same time. The drummer will have special sections in the song where they can perform there own drum solos. Boss Battles are back, but are not as focused on attack power-ups. Players will now have a “Create-a-Rocker” mode. You can

Create-a-Rocker

change your characters poise, clothing, tattoos, makeup, and age. You can also customize your guitars to a very high degree. Drum sets and mics will also be customizable. Development for a new guitar controller is underway. The new guitar features a touchpad below or next to (depends on the angle your looking from) the normal five fret buttons along the neck of the guitar. According to IGN, players will be alter the tone of sustained notes as well simply tapping to play a note, similar to slapping a bass. The touchpad can also be used for sustains and staccato notes in the music studio. Older GH guitars will still work on World Tour. The drum set is a wireless, velocity sensative, six-piece set with 2 cymbal pads, a snare, 2 toms, and a bass pedal. During song creation, the velocity sensitivity will alter how loud the drum sounds, so, hitting the drums harder during creation, lounder the note will sound hitting it regularly in the song. The mic will uses a USB in place of a wireless one.

The 3 new instruments

For the first time ever, all the songs in the game will be master, or original, recordings. IGN reports there being over 85 new songs. Songs from Guitar Hero III will not be playable on World Tour. Bands confirmed for the game are: Van Halen, The Eagles, and Linkin Park. IGN’s preview showed that Sublime’s “Santeria”, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”, and Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” will be featured on the game. The Game Informer Preview also suggests that Dream Theater may be featured. Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” was featured in the world premiere trailer and was confirmed as a playable track. Blink-182’s “Dammit” was featured in a video showcasing of the drum set featuring +44’s drummer Travis Barker doing motion capture. A leak from a market research firm mentioned that the game would feature Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, and Muse. The Answer mentioned in a conference that there 2005 single “Never Too Late” will be in the game. Fearless Records announced that the song “One Armed Scissor” by At the Drive-In will be in the game as well. Another survey rumoured that the game will feature the band Tool, as well as featuring playable characters including Ted Nugent, Sting, Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Hayley Williams, and Zakk Wylde. Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re An American Band” may also be featured, but Activision has not confirmed it. All in all, this game is definently going to compete with Rock Band and sounds awesome. It has its highs and lows, as well does Rock Band 2 (see post Rock Band 2 is Upon Us!). All we can do now, is wait and see.